Orbital flight of CubeSats at altitudes between 150 and 250 km has the potential to enable a new class of scientific, commercial, and defense-related missions. A study is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of extending the orbital lifetime of a CubeSat in a 210 km orbit. Propulsion consists of an electrospray thruster operating at a 2 W, 0.175 mN thrust, and an specific impulse (Isp) of 500 s. The mission consists of two phases. In phase 1, the CubeSat is deployed from a 414 km orbit and uses the thruster to deorbit to the target altitude of 210 km. In phase 2, the propulsion system is used to extend the mission lifetime until propellant is fully expended. A control algorithm based on maintaining a target orbital energy is presented that uses an extended Kalman filter to generate estimates of the orbital dynamic state, which are periodically updated by Global Positioning System measurements. For phase 1, the spacecraft requires 25.21 days to descend from 414 to 210 km, corresponding to a ΔV=96.25  m/s and a propellant consumption of 77.8 g. Phase 2 lasts 57.83 days, corresponding to a ΔV=119.15  m/s, during which the remaining 94.2 g of propellant are consumed.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Feasibility for Orbital Life Extension of a CubeSat in the Lower Thermosphere




    Publication date :

    2016




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English



    Classification :

    BKL:    55.60 Raumfahrttechnik
    Local classification TIB:    770/7040



    Feasibility for Orbital Life Extension of a CubeSat in the Lower Thermosphere

    Blandino, John J. / Martinez-Baquero, Nicolas / Demetriou, Michael A. et al. | NTRS | 2016


    Feasibility for Orbital Life Extension of a CubeSat in the Lower Thermosphere

    Blandino, John J. / Martinez-Baquero, Nicolas / Demetriou, Michael A. et al. | AIAA | 2016


    Feasibility for Orbital Life Extension of a CubeSat Flying in the Lower Thermosphere

    Blandino, John J. / Martinez, Nicolas / Demetriou, Michael A. et al. | AIAA | 2016


    Feasibility for Orbital Life Extension of a CubeSat Flying in the Lower Thermosphere (AIAA 2016-0965)

    Blandino, John J. / Martinez, Nicolas / Demetriou, Michael A. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2016


    Extended Orbital Flight of a CubeSat in the Lower Thermosphere with Active Attitude Control

    Krishna Moorthy, Ananthalakshmy / Blandino, John J. / Gatsonis, Nikolaos A. et al. | AIAA | 2019